Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/86

76 peculiar to Europe; more than four times as many, to wit, 74, peculiar to America; that the firſt of theſe 74 weighs more than the whole column of Europeans; and conſequently this ſecond table diſproves the ſecond member of the aſſertion, that the animals peculiar to the new world are on a ſmaller ſcale, ſo far as that aſſertion relied on European animals for ſupport; and it is in full oppoſition to the theory which makes the animal volume to depend on the circumſtances of heat and moiſture.

The 3d table comprehends thoſe quadrupeds only which are domeſtic in both countries. That ſome of theſe, in ſome parts of America, have become leſs than their original ſtock, is doubtleſs true; and the reaſon is very obvious. In a thinly peopled country, the ſpontaneous productions of the foreſt and waſte fields are ſufficient to ſupport indifferently the domeſtic animals of the farmer, with a very little aid from him in the ſevereſt and ſcarceſt ſeaſon. He therefore finds it more convenient to receive them from the hand of nature